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==History== [[Image:Harvard Cruft Hall.png|thumb|Harvard Cruft Laboratory]] Around 1958, the term was used in the sense of "garbage" by students frequenting the [[Tech Model Railroad Club]] (TMRC) at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT).<ref>{{cite book |first=Steven |last=Levy |author-link=Steven Levy |title=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution |edition=25th Anniversary |publisher=O'Reilly Media |date=2010 |isbn=9781449393748 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mShXzzKtpmEC&q=%22garbage+was+called+cruft%22&pg=PA8 |page=8}}</ref> In the 1959 edition of the club's dictionary, it was defined as "that which magically amounds in the Clubroom just before you walk in to clean up. In other words, rubbage".<ref name=":0">{{cite web |first=Peter |last=Samson |author-link=Peter Samson |url=http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html |title=AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE |orig-year=June 1959 |date=2005 |access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref> Its author [[Peter Samson]] later explained that this was meant in the sense of "detritus, that which needs to be swept up and thrown out. The dictionary has no definition for 'crufty,' a word I didn't hear until some years later".<ref name=":0" /> In 2008 it was also used to refer to alumni who remain socially active at MIT.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/speaking_mitese|title=Speaking MITese |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref> The origin of the term is uncertain, but it may be derived from [[Harvard University]]'s Cruft Laboratory. Built in 1915 as a gift from a donor named Harriet Otis Cruft,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1916/3/10/bronze-tablet-erected-in-cruft-memorial/|title=Bronze Tablet Erected in Cruft Memorial Laboratory|website=thecrimson.com|access-date=26 November 2014}}</ref> it housed the Harvard Physics Department's radar lab during [[World War II]].
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